I'd Climb The Highest Mountain (1951)

Set in rural Georgia in the early 20th century, a city girl (Susan Hayward) marries a country parson (William Lundigan) and must adjust to the poverty and isolation so different from the life she was brought up in. Based on the novel by Corra Harris and directed by Henry King (SONG OF BERNADETTE). The film is episodic in nature as it covers three years in the life of a minister and his wife and the good times and bad times they endure. The film has an obvious religious agenda and by the time a heavenly choir was singing The Lord's Prayer as "The End" appeared on the screen, I'd had just about enough of this sanctimonious pudding. It's the kind of film where when we first meet the local atheist (Alexander Knox), we know he'll start to come around by the end of the movie. I was also taken aback at the behavior of these Christian characters. When a child dies under his watch that he promised to look after, Lundigan's minister doesn't appear to have any twinge of guilt that he might be even a little culpable in the child's death. And Hayward's bitchy behavior toward a female churchgoer (Lynn Bari) seems excessively out of line for a minister's wife. With Rory Calhoun, Barbara Bates, Gene Lockhart, Ruth Donnelly and Jean Inness.